Trip Report SOLO + FOMO = DUO : Oct. '21 trip to WDW

Hello Friends!

I just spent last week in WDW and I'm excited to share another trip report with you all.

Back in August, I planned a SOLO trip to celebrate the 50th as a birthday gift to myself. My birthday is September 21st, but I was celebrating a month later in Disney!

One morning in September, my husband comes home from work (after working the night shift) and says he needs to ask me a serious question. Of course, all kinds of things start flowing through my mind. He proceeds to ask whether I would mind having his company on my trip. That he'd been thinking about how much fun it was going to be, etc. etc, but that if I really wanted to go SOLO he'd understand. I told him I'd love his company, however, it depended on a few things. One, you have to see if you can take vacation. He already handled that. Two, you have to see if flights are still available. Again, that was taken care of. Third, I had to check to see if park passes were available. He went to sleep and I got up to start my day. I logged on to work from home that day and immediately checked and saw that the same park days were available. So, I called Disney, added him to the reservation, scheduled his park days and voila. Since the original plan was for it to just be me, I was only planning on having quick service meals, but now that he was coming I also went ahead and grabbed some reservations. Fast forward to my birthday and we were out having brunch when he asks if it would be easy for us to add an extra day to the trip. When we got home, I called Disney to add an extra day and change our resort. I was originally staying at Movies, but we wanted Skyliner access. We were able to change flights easily as well. Final plans were now in place!

So without further ado, I hope you will all join in as I share our adventures!

Who: Josh and Heather
What: My Birthday Trip and WDW's 50th Celebration!
When: October 25-October 29
Where: Pop Century Resort

 

[joshsprincess921]

I sang, YOU ARE THE MAGIC all the way out! So fun!

We hopped on the monorail over to our lunch destination!

We were dining in the new Steakhouse 71.

 

[cgersic]

I really like your shirt!

 

[joshsprincess921]

I ordered the Stack Burger and Josh the Prime Rib sandwich. We split each and shared so we could both have some of each. Let me tell you, I can't stop thinking about this burger! The fries were yummy too! The Prime Rib sandwich is very good as well, but I'll take the burger over it any day!

We opted out of dessert because we wanted out food to settle a bit and get a treat in the park. I highly recommend Steakhouse 71. It was so good and I look forward to trying it for dinner one day as well.

We browsed the shops in the Contemporary before heading back.

We caught Alice and Peter Pan on the way back in.

Josh was already ready for his dessert!

While he had his treat, we gazed at the map and talked about what we wanted to do next. We have never seen the Country Bears so today was the day. I can't believe I've never seen it (I may have as a child and just don't remember). We both laughed throughout. Josh says he wants Cameron to see it next trip. I told y'all he was really getting into these stage shows.

 

[joshsprincess921]

I really like your shirt!

Thank you! I ordered it from Etsy.

 

[joshsprincess921]

I'm pretty sure that we used Genie+ for Pirates after Country Bears and I got a Dole Whip afterwards, but no picture documentation of this. Josh wanted to see Carousel of Progress, so we headed that way.

I remember our last trip was the first time Josh had seen CoP. I didn't think he'd care for it and thought he'd nap. He tells me on this trip that it's one of his favorite things at MK. He loves the history surrounding it.

Next, we decided to take a ride of the Liberty Belle so BACK across the park we went.

We came up to the spot where the fake deer are and I said hey look some deer, but then right in the middle of the fake deer were some REAL deer. They had two bucks play fighting with each other. It was the neatest thing. There were probably about 5 deer all together in the area. Soo cool!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We wanted to try the Breaded Mozz filled Ravioli but they had sold out.

This was nothing special either! You really didn't miss much by not being able to get it!

View attachment 598087

I love this shirt! So cute!!

 

[joshsprincess921]

We really enjoyed this more than we thought we would. It was around 5:30 when we road and it was such a nice time to ride it. We had the dessert party booked for tonight and I wanted to get a ride in on the Peoplemover and Josh wanted to do Astro Orbiter. We we trekked BACK across the park again, Peoplemover was down. We grabbed a frozen drink and stood in line for Astro Orbiter. Once we got up there, I took the chicken exit and had a seat while Josh went up.

At this point, they started loading Peoplemover again, but it stopped again. Check in for the dessert party was approaching and I didn't want to get stuck on the ride, so we opted out.

We were doing to the After Party, so we checked in and then went and got our spot in the Hub.

I sat while Josh went and got our dinner. Casey's on the hub grass was the only way!

I was smart this time though because I knew we had desserts coming, so I didn't eat too much dinner so I would have room.

Ok, so I had watched Enchantment on Youtube and I like others was disappointed that it didn't really have the feeling I thought it would for the 50th. I wanted some Walt, some Mickey Mouse, etc. etc. That being said, I went into this night knowing what it was like, so I took my expectations for the 50th fireworks out of it and just kept an open mind and enjoyed it for what it was. In the end, I loved it. I thought it was much better in person for sure.

 

[joshsprincess921]

This was nothing special either! You really didn't miss much by not being able to get it!

I love this shirt! So cute!!

Well that's good to hear. I heard there wasn't a lot of cheese in the middle.
Thanks!

 

[joshsprincess921]

After the fireworks, we headed over to the Tomorrowland Terrace for the dessert party. We were escorted to our reserved seating. I didn't get many pictures, but the area was really nice.

Here is my dessert plate. I think there was only one thing I didn't get to try and they also had fresh fruit. My only complaint was I wish they had a couple other savory things other than the cheese, but all of the desserts I tried were very good. My favorite was the Oreo cheesecake and the push pop.

There were also drinks available. I got the champagne and got a side of Pog juice to add to it for Pog juice mimosas! Josh got a Blue Moon.

This was the only thing that had anything for the 50th on it. I was surprised to not at least see a 50th anniversary cupcake.

Not something I would do again and again, but for a special occasion I thought it was nice and I also liked doing it after so I didn't feel rushed to eat the desserts and get out to the fireworks spot!

I felt our Magic Kingdom day was perfect and thought the Genie+ worked well here. I sort of use it like the rolling fastpass went. I never set it up like they offer to tell you where to go and when. I would just look at the tip board and see what was available at that time and grabbed it. Peter Pan and Jungle Cruise are the two rides that go quickly, so if those are a must for you, I'd either rope drop those or grab them as your first Genie+ selections.

 

[Zipadeelady]

I really like your shirt!

I was going to say the same!!

I like your shirt @joshsprincess921 !

 

[amjt660]

I don't know if one of the hitchhiking ghosts were hanging out or not, but our drawers would always slide open randomly. I can't tell you how many times I hit my shin on this drawer because I wasn't paying attention.

my desk drawer at work does this sometimes - it is not level- you probably could have shimmed up the dresser with a few napkins
(how many other people have done this at resturants?)

He cracks me up because he tries to play it off that Disney is for me, but the more we go, the more I see him falling in love with it, but not sure if he will ever admit it.

yes - the process is almost complete...

Splash Mountain had a good little wait but zipped on in.

I see what you did there!!

too bad @Zipitidoda did not catch it

Max

 

[joshsprincess921]

I was going to say the same!!

I like your shirt @joshsprincess921 !

Thank you. I got lots of compliments on it.

 

[Zipadeelady]

my desk drawer at work does this sometimes - it is not level- you probably could have shimmed up the dresser with a few napkins
(how many other people have done this at resturants?)


yes - the process is almost complete...

I see what you did there!!

too bad @Zipitidoda did not catch it

Max

 

[joshsprincess921]

October 28th

There was a high percentage of rain in the forecast and today was Animal Kingdom day. But like I told Josh, one... this was a bonus day for me because on my planned solo trip, I would have been flying home today and second... this would likely lead to less people, so we were going to make the best of it. I packed up our ponchos and waterproof sandals and we were off! I did not buy the Individual LL for Flight of Passage because were going for early park opening for resort guest, but at 7:00am, I booked a completely useless Genie+ pass for the safari. In no way shape or form was Genie+ worth the money at AK this day.

When we arrived it was still dark out and you can see by this picture that I was clearly still not awake yet. But have no fear because coffee was in hand!

I had made myself a cup of the new 50th blend before we left. I really liked it!

We were some of the first to the turnstiles and waited about 30 minutes there. It was very strange being there so early. By the time we were let in the sun was beginning to rise. Absolutely beautiful!

We followed the herd....

On my last trip in May, I experienced lots of motion sickness on rides that never really affected me before, so the ones that did affect me normally like FoP were worse. I began taking a Bonine at bedtime the night before our trip and I took one each night. I am happy to report I had NO motion sickness. This was the first time I've ever ridden FoP where I didn't have to close my eyes at all. It was my best ride yet.

We also walked on Navi River Journey before making our way to Africa for our safari and on the way we spotted these fellas!

 

[joshsprincess921]

Like I said earlier, Genie+ was useless today. The wait was 5 minutes. We saw lots of animals on the trip, but our tour guide was a speedster. She really zoomed though!

Some safari photos...

These dudes were the only thing that slowed our guide down...

They kept letting her know how they felt about her driving...

 

[joshsprincess921]

After the two week trip, we were starving so food was next on the agenda.

It was so empty!

Josh made a stop, so I went down to grab some photos. There was a couple trying to take a self timer pic with their phone propped up on a water bottle, so I offered to take it for them. They were very happy. So was I!

We went over to the Yak n Yeti quick service and grabbed a bite to eat. I got one of the breakfast bowls which was decent. I am not a huge fan of crunchy peppers and onions and this had a good bit of that, but otherwise, it was good. Josh got a breakfast on a stick thing which came with hash browns. I believe it was a kids meal. I did not grab a picture of it, but the hash browns were on point! I could have just eaten those. Super good and crispy. We grabbed a seat and took our time eating.

Josh is not a fan of Everest, it gives him a bad headache, but I wanted to ride. He was debating riding with me, but I told him just sit it out so he wouldn't feel bad and regret it. I went on solo and rode with a nice lady. We had a great ride and no motion sickness this time like last time. Yay!

Next, I grabbed a Genie+ for Dinosaur so we walked that way. We walked in with another family, but they went standby and we went LL. By the time we got into the room where they show the video they were already in there so it took us longer to walk though LL than standby.

We wanted to watch the bird show next so we went back that direction. They were about 5 minutes into the show when it started raining hard and they called the show. They let everyone know we were welcome to stay in the shelter until it slowed down. We took this time to think about what to do next. Once it let up a little, we put on our ponchos and headed over to the Lion King. Of course, once we start walking it starts coming down hard again. There was a couple walking in front of us with no ponchos, no umbrella, just drenched. I asked Josh later on in the day if he thought they just went back to the room or continued to tour the park. I always think back and wonder about the people I see people watching. I'm weird like that!

Anyway, now warm and dry, we got ready for the show! I did miss the monkeys, but still loved it.

 

[joshsprincess921]

We had mobile ordered Satu'li Canteen for lunch and it was perfect timing once the show was over. This time we took the pathway from Lion King back to Pandora. I got the beef bowl with the hash. Oh I love this so much. Josh got the shrimp noodle bowl which is also loves. I've always wanted to try the cheeseburger pod, so got one of those to. Eh, it was ok. I prefer the bowl.

I had been thinking about going over to the Conservation Station, another thing I've never done, but on the way over the clouds weren't looking the best, so when we saw that Safari was still a walk on, we decided to go on another. This time our guide drove normal speeds.

Once we left there, we took a stroll though the Gorilla trail and the highlight of my day...we saw the baby girl. The Castmember said she's 3 months old and just learned to crawl. Her name is Ada which means "First Daughter".

We were curious to see if we could catch the bird show, so headed back that way. The Castmembers recognized us from being there earlier and wished us the best this time. I thought that was awesome considering how many people they see in a day. And this time we did get to see the whole show. It was fantastic.

 

[joshsprincess921]

We also had the Owl fly right in front of our faces. Crazy! After the bird show, we felt it was the perfect time to head out and go get cleaned up for the evening. We grabbed a Mickey bar on the way out and headed back to the resort. We took a nap (this is when the 2nd lady from Mousekeeping came in) and then got ready for some shopping at Disney Springs.

I took this picture for Cam because he loves Orange Bird. We were supposed to bring him home the orange bird plush with the big feet at MK, but they were sold out. I was just looking online and can only find them on ebay for $30 more than the selling price, so nope. We went to World of Disney and a few other stores. I was also disappointed because they were sold out of the blown glass 50th ornament I really wanted. I'm not big on merchandise, but Christmas ornaments are my thing. The Castmember said they will be restocked and should be on shopDisney over the course of the 18 months. I really hope so! I was able to grab one for the 50th just incase I can't the one I want I'll at least have one.

After shopping awhile it was time for dinner.

Nope, not the Boathouse, I just thought it looked so pretty! We were headed to Splitsville. Remember how I said Josh loves sushi but is super picky about it. Well I've heard reviews about the sushi here, so decided to try it out. Our waiter was originally from about an hour away from where we live so we had a great time talking to him and he gave us some recommendations.

I got the Painkiller because my feet were hurting. LOL!

For dinner we got the grilled avocado with ahi tuna appetizer, the Crouching Dragon roll and Fantasy roll.

Josh was so impressed he ended up ordering another roll, but I can't remember what he got. He raved about this place. A lot of the other items being served around us looked very good too. We will for sure be back. I really liked the atmosphere as well. That concluded our trip to Disney Springs!

October 29

Originally we had a breakfast reservation at Grand Floridian Cafe, but the night before we decided we wanted to sleep in so we did just that. We got up and got dressed, got our stuff packed then had a late lunch at Pop then came back to the room until it was time to leave at 11:00.

We walked to the bus stop and there was another ME bus, but it wasn't our time, but he had room and let us go with them an hour early! Everything went smoothly, we had some lunch and coffee while waiting.

Any Devo fans?

I think she must've have been going straight to a Halloween party once she landed!

The flight was great and we came home to some chilly fall weather!

Thank you all for joining as I shared my adventure. It was a fantastic trip and we both said it was one of our best trips yet!

 

[MinnieM123]

What a pleasant TR! So many excellent photos (animals --OMG, the baby gorilla!; attractions; FOOD!; and, everything else), and interesting / informative, comments. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

(P.S.: Just wanted to mention that in your Oct. 28th section, the outdoors photos at Pandora -- The World of Avatar, in AK Park, had the most unique sky in the background, that morning!! Wow! Great pictures.)

Glad that you made it home safely, and now you have wonderful memories of your trip.

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for bringing us along